New York Waterway has asked a judge to order Hoboken to allow it to continue preparing the Union Dry Dock site as a ferry maintenance facility and end its efforts to take the land and develop it as public space.

“We have the necessary state and federal permits and the site has the proper zoning,” NY Waterway founder and president Arthur E. Imperatore said in a statement, adding that his company owns the land and has been paying taxes on it since it was purchased in 2017.

“Hoboken politicians are preventing us from doing our job. We respectfully ask the court to rectify this injustice,” Imperatore added.

The suit filed Friday in Hudson County Superior Court argues that NY Waterway was granted all necessary permits to use the Frank Sinatra Drive property for maritime industrial purposes in 2018 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

But on Feb. 13, Hoboken issued a stop work order on NY Waterway’s operations at the site, saying the ferry company must apply for permits from the city to continue preparations at the site, the suit says.

The city, which views the land as the last link in creating a contiguous public waterfront, wants to turn the site into a public park.

According to the suit, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla’s statement that the site “would only become a NY Waterway ferry maintenance and refueling facility over my dead body,” raises serious questions about the fairness of the city in applying its land use laws.

Hoboken spokesman Vijay Chaudhuri said Friday that “Mayor Bhalla and the city will use any and all legally appropriate means to ensure compliance with our regulations, to protect the health and safety of residents, and to defend the city against meritless litigation.”

But the suit says that Hoboken has made it clear that filing any application for the requisite permits would be futile.

“The collective actions of the city and its current administration have made it absolutely clear that under no circumstances will NY Waterway obtain any cooperation from the City of Hoboken nor have the requirements and due process of law apply to NY Waterway.”

NY Waterway says its Weehawken ferry maintenance site is no longer efficient for a number or reasons, including the growth of its fleet and the recent loss of upland the company says is necessary. Shortly after the ferry service purchased the Union Dry Dock land, the city began the process of seizing it via eminent domain.

Hoboken, at least temporarily, suspended its fight to take the land at the request of Gov. Phil Murphy, who sought to get all parties at the table and find the best way forward. A Hoboken official said Friday the city continues to be in consultation with the governor’s office.

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